Because big data implementations are often marketing-focused, they can emerge as "rogue" projects that aren't centrally managed by IT. Not only does that pose a security risk, it also means that the projects aren't likely to be drawing on a broad enough range of data to enable unusual insights.

Predicting the future is near impossible -- but that doesn‘t stop us all from having a red hot go. Human beings have been predicting the future since the beginning of history and the results range from the hilarious to the downright uncanny.

One thing all future predictions have in common: they‘re rooted in our current understanding of how the world works. It‘s difficult to escape that mindset. We have no idea how technology will evolve, so our ideas are connected to the technology of today.

We've become accustomed to the notion of public cloud services (freely available to everyone), private cloud services (maintained by a specific company, but charged and deployed on a usage/needs basis) and hybrid clouds (which blend the two). The next possible development on the cloud horizon? Single-purpose clouds, optimised for a particular kind of workload.

Hype around wearable computing has been growing through 2013, especially with the release of Samsung's Samsung Galaxy Gear Smart Watch and as-yet-unrealised rumours of a similar Apple product. However, a recent survey reminds us that the concept of wearable computing isn't exactly new.

One reason companies resist moving into cloud or hosted environments is not being able to tightly control the install environment. Rackspace's new Dedicated VMware vCenter Server allows businesses to set up a single-tenant vCenter installation that can be controlled with your existing management tools and potentially integrated with other on-premises servers.

Cloud provider Rackspace has launched a series of mobile cloud stacks aimed at developers building mobile apps which need to access cloud resources. The first offering is PHP-based, with Ruby on Rails and node.js also in the planning stafes. Check out the blog post or the video for more details.

Large data centre operators and cloud providers often use odd proprietary software to manage their installations. Rackspace has taken the slightly unusual step of releasing the OpenCenter software it uses to run its own centres as open source software, letting anyone use the package if they wish.